The phenomenal Lark Pien recently left her Bay Area stomping grounds to check out Tokyo, and was kind enough to send us the following report…
Design Festa – welp! this was a big reason for coming to japan when i have. it was on the 26th and 27th of November. i caught the giant DIY show on Sunday. it was FABuLOUS. there’s something like 2,000 odd vendors at this thing. Chiku, nikawabin, kimono girls, and semani are all people who “tabled” (they just get a spot on the floor). i didn’t know any of these people, i just bought stuff from them, but they were pretty accepting of my very very bad japanese (hey! i had to teach myself!)
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chiku does beautiful paper cut outs. immaculate stuff. i’ll try to find the websites, i’ve packed them away for now.
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nikawabin and another girl are artists/illustrators and they were selling bookcovers (the paper she’s holding up).
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kimono girls – i think they were selling handmade pouches? i didn’t get a good look, it was crowded.
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semani does silkscreen t-shirts. i bought one of his cool deconstructivist punk architectural themed ones for about 35.00. that is a cheap price for t-shirts here – the average seems to be 50.00.
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Nakano Broadway
– in Tokyo area, get off at this station, walk through the sun mall (see photo) and round the bend to get to the NakanoBroadway mall for 4 floors jam packed with toys, comics, costumes (cosplay – is that what they call it? all new to me…!), original art, cells, vending machines with those little toys that come in plastic ball cases, video games, antique toys. I saw a battlescarred Optimus Prime in one of the cases – BAD ASS! i got a huge slew of comics, including everything i ever wanted by taiyo matsumoto. google Mandarake stores for more info.
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gocco demo – the coolest “you can find everything in this store” Tokyo Hands. A giant one in Shibuya, and another, slightly less comprehensive store located in Shinjuku. The shibuya one had a whole aisle dedicated to Gocco Printing, with screens bigger than 8×11 even. there were 2 videos demonstrating how to use the gocco. go, gocco!
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XBox Cafe – this is right near where i’ve been staying. the Sony PS cafe is pretty close too. go in anytime to test drive a virtual car, beat up monsters and what not. i only know how to use a gamecube, so i didn’t try any games at these places.
props go to my brother, who housed me for the whole 3 weeks. without him, and his merchandising career, i wouldn’t be able to come to japan and have this great experience.
All Photos by Lark Pien.